GamesRadar: Cities XL Preview

While city-building games tend to simply drill themselves deeper into obsessive detail with each iteration, Monte Cristo is veering off in a more ambitious direction with Cities XL by fusing resource trading and web integration with the traditional taxing, zoning, and constructing you're accustomed to. With up to 10,000 players occupying and developing each planet, and room for every mayor to interact over blogs, online profiles, and friends lists via the game's web portal, Cities XL begins to look less like an urban development sim with an online component and more like an MMO for budding city planners.